Manchester City chase Niang and Nasri but Cissé not on their list

Manchester City have asked Marseille about the availability of the striker Mamadou Niang and the attacking midfielder Samir Nasri but, contrary to claims from the French club, they have shown no interest in signing the former Liverpool forward Djibril Cissé.

Alistair Mackintosh, the City chief executive, spoke to Marseille's president Pape Diouf on Monday, initially to see if they were interested in signing Ousmane Dabo, who is not in manager Sven-Goran Eriksson's plans and has indicated he wants to return to France. Mackintosh made Diouf aware of City's interest in Niang and Nasri but got a lukewarm response. There was also a conversation about whether Marseille might want Georgios Samaras, who is undecided about whether to join Birmingham, but it is understood that Cissé's name was not mentioned.

Roy Hodgson, Fulham's new manager, is hoping to entice Bobby Zamora away from West Ham United, but the chances of the transfer going through will be hampered by the striker's wage demands.

Queens Park Rangers' recruitment drive continued yesterday with the signing of Rowan Vine from Birmingham for £1m. The former Luton striker, who moved to Birmingham last January, spent three months on loan at Loftus Road earlier this season. Vine becomes Luigi de Canio's eighth new signing since the new year, with the club's co-owners Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal funding a £4m investment in new players over the last eight days. "This is clearly the place to be and when you see new players come through the door so quickly, you know the people at the very top mean business," said Vine.

Chris Coleman will continue as coach of Real Sociedad, despite the arrival of a new president at the club. Coleman was brought in at the Basque side in the summer by the former president, María de la Peña, who was forced to resign before the end of last year.

The former Wales international defender announced that he would not continue under a different president and expressed doubts about De la Peña's eventual successor, Iñaki Badiola. Badiola, who owns a Hong Kong-based holding company and is backed by Chinese investors, had made it clear that he would have preferred the former Deportivo La Coruña coach Javier Irureta to have been appointed, but after talks with Coleman on Monday night and again yesterday he has persuaded the Welshman to continue until the end of the season and to accept a loan deal for Arsenal's Spanish midfielder Fran Mérida, who is 17. He is also interested in signing Barcelona's midfielder Marc Crosas.

After a shaky start to the season, Real Sociedad are seventh in the Second Division, four points off the promotion places. "We have a project and we want Coleman to be a part of it," said Badiola.

The Sheffield Wednesday director Keith Addy, 72, has resigned over a racist remark made at the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce in November. "This remark, directed not at the employee, but at a public agency, used a term which I now realise was racially offensive and wholly inappropriate. However, it was not intended as a racial slur but was stated in the heat of the moment at a time of stress and out of frustration," he said.